Dantalion: REIKU
by cinnamon bird
Summary: Reiku is a pessimistic daeva living in the poorest region of Dantalion. When he gets a letter from the government proclaiming him to be a Hei-Bai candidate, how far will he go to find out what that means? Accompanied by his friends, he goes on a journey of self-worth and discovery. An original fantasy story.


**AN: So! This is a fantasy story. Not everything about the world is going to be explained right away, but I do hope I do a decent job of making the basic stuff clear. Daeva are pretty much like cats/foxes, but with wings and horns (these vary depending on the daeva). I imagine them to be about a foot in length, not counting the tails, so they're only a little bigger than cats.**

 **Hei-Bai are daeva that have been blessed by the Final Hei-Bai, who's considered the main leader of Dantalion. About every year he picks some daeva to become Hei-Bai (but this doesn't lead to too many Hei-Bai, because he makes up for the population increase with executions ;-; he is very mean). Some Hei-Bai are nicer than others, but once they've been chosen to look over a region, there aren't any rules about what they can do (although if they do something like declare war on the Final Hei-Bai they'll prolly get killed D:)**

 **The country, Dantalion, is split up into 9 regions, which are color-coded. Pink, Purple, Indigo, Blue, Teal, Green, Lime, Yellow, and Orange. Each region has a different culture, and there are some minor differences in daeva appearance between regions (i.e. daeva from Lime have slightly different wings than daeva from Pink). I'll post more info on the regions in my Bio.**

 **I hope this isn't too much to take in. ;-; My Bio will have more information in an (hopefully) easier to understand format, so check there if you're interested! I know the chapter is very short... but I'll update very frequently! I have lots of plans for this story, and I'll make sure I finish them.**

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Reiku sighed as he forced his way through the crowd. Today was the day that all the daeva of Yellow had been waiting for, the day when the Final Hei-Bai would pick which Hei-Bai got to rule over them for the next three years, and the streets were even more packed than usual for it. Peddlers and _voso_ were everywhere, attempting to lure in customers with stories of which daeva would be picked. Foolish, considering everyone knew it would be Taranis again.

 _Taranis. Honestly, why did the Final pick him, of all Hei-Bai? He hasn't done anything to deal with Dzahui, and he's had plenty of opportunity._

The purple daeva frowned at that thought and continued through the streets until he reached his destination. Looking up at the intimidating steel building, he padded through the doorway. The inside was a dimly lit, very large room, with the main source of light being the glow of the furnaces, and he blinked as his eyes adjusted. It was an annoyingly hot place, with fans that made no real effort to cool down the room. He inhaled, and sneezed at the overpowering scent of coal, steel, and dust. Loud voices shouted over intercom speakers, but there were so many of them that he couldn't make out what they were saying.

Peering around the dimly lit room, he saw a lot of daeva sectioned off from each other in rows. Spotting an empty spot in a line, he walked over to it. There were walls separating him from the other working daeva. A conveyor belt was facing him, some sort of sign was stationed above the belt, and there was a jar of metal pins crudely taped to the wall. Looking up at the sign, he saw it depicted a daeva putting a metal pin into some sort of cube. He picked up a pin between his teeth, pushed a button, and waited for the belt to push a cube towards him.

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While no daeva liked working on the assembly lines, they were the best source of steady pay on the Cimmaron. Some daeva did alright making souvenirs, he reflected, but he had never been very good at glassblowing. At least with the lines you were sure to have enough money for food and rent. After he put in the last pin and dropped the cube down a rectangular shaft at his feet, he pressed the button again and let the scanner next to it read his iris. A dispenser shot out some currency, and he pocketed it and left the building.

Or at least, he tried to leave. There were more daeva on the streets than there had been before. Taranis much have been chosen while he was working. He sighed, he had been hoping to make it home before any riots started. As he tried to make his way through the milling daeva, keeping to the walls in case any carts got fed up with the traffic, he noticed that the shouts weren't the ones he had come to expect on the days when the Final picked. Everyone was smiling a lot more than he expected. He chalked it down to heat stroke from working in the lines, but as he continued, he grew more and more confused.

The daeva _were_ cheering. Reiku knew he lived under a rock (metaphorically), but could he really have forgotten some festival?

"Reiku! Hey, over here!" someone was calling his name. Turning as best he could towards the voice, he growled when he saw it was his roommate. Shuncho always had to be in the middle of everything, didn't he. Reiku debated just walking away, but the crowds were too thick to do that with any sort of grace. He fought his way to the odd-haired daeva.

"Shuncho? What's happening? Has everyone finally gone crazy?" He had to shout to be heard above the noise.

"No! The Final Hei-Bai didn't pick Taranis!" Reiku stared at him, startled. Had the Final finally gotten tired of the Lightning Hei-Bai's idiocy? It was past time for a new Hei-Bai.

"Who did he pick?" What other Hei-Bai would even be in consideration for Yellow? The region didn't exactly have a great track record, and he doubted any competent Hei-Bai would be sent.

"Some chick with three bodies! No one knows who she is, but she's really chill, says she's gonna get rid of Dzahui! I can't wait for it to rain again, oh man, this is gonna be so cool!"

"Taranis said he'd get rid of Dzahui, and look what he did instead. Not to mention that, if it did rain, no one would come to your concerts. You wouldn't even be able to get your equipment set up."

"Pft, s'not like it'll rain constantly. There'll be plenty of time for concerts! Any anyways, fresh water has to taste way better than that muck we usually drink. I wonder if she'll still let us paint the town…"

"Probably. If she's as nice as you say she is, she won't get rid of any festivals. Might even hire you to sing, hah."

"Oh man, that would be sooo cool! Getting to sing for a Hei-Bai, especially one as hot as her, would be a blast!"

Reiku snorted and watched as Shuncho started chatting up a group of female daeva that had been subtly drifting closer. Once it was clear his friend wasn't listening to him anymore, he slowly cleared a path away from his friend and to the city square. He wanted to know more about this new Hei-Bai, and it she was anywhere in Yellow, it would be the center of Cimmaron.

 _One of the perks of living in the capital, I guess._

He chuckled at the thought. Squeezing past some daeva, he glanced up and stopped in awe. The whole place was decorated with banners, sparkles, and confetti, but at a closer look the latter was just cooked rice. Still, the whole scene was rather shocking. Even the best festivals weren't as impressive as this.

He cautiously balanced on his hind legs to get a better view, and saw some sort of pedestal carried by daeva.

 _Hah, no wheels. Good choice…_

Whoever she was, she certainly seemed to understand what the daeva of Yellow thought of their previous ruler. Standing up higher, he was able to make out three figures hidden by a thin, sparkling curtain. Shuncho hadn't been lying, she really did have three bodies! The blessings that the Final performed on daeva to create Hei-Bai were said to cause such things sometimes, although it was uncommon.

The pedestal turned as the daeva beneath it shifted, and he saw her. Each of the bodies had very pallid makeup, and as the crowds shifted away from him he could make out her eyes. One had red, another green, and the final one, yellow. They wore matching sashes, and to his shock, he realized the pedestal burned with a dark red flame. Talk about dramatic.

Suddenly realizing something was wrong, he looked from side to side and saw that the crowds were leaving an awfully large gap between him and them. He stared as the daeva carrying the pedestal continued towards him, stopping five feet away. He was in the Hei-Bai's way… and he was standing there on his hind legs, looking like an idiot.

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End of Chapter One


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